Children’s books offer cozy winter reads
Alaska’s talented writers and illustrators have published some great stuff for children this year. With the holiday season upon us and a long, cold seasons ahead, what better time for youngsters to curl up with a good book?

Art imitates life in rock trio 9spine’s lyrics
“You can’t eat it, it’s kind of prehistoric-looking and once it gets into a pond or lake it kills everything off,” Dustin Aaronson said of the stickleback fish that takes unwelcome residence in Nikiski lakes and inspired the name of Aaronson’s Kenai based band, 9spine. “It’s not a good thing.”

Eliminate bribery at the source
Everything that I have seen in the media about Randy “Duke” Cunningham has focused on what he did wrong, while ignoring the defense contractors who did the bribing. You’ll remember, Cunningham is the congressman and Vietnam war hero from California accused of taking millions of dollars in bribes from defense contractors. Cunningham is going down in flames, while we hear nothing about those contractors who tempted and bought him with these lavish offers.

Wal-Mart not the issue
I would like to comment on the article on Wal-Mart on Nov. 18. First I want Wal-Mart to come to Kenai. What really upsets me is when people put animal life above human life, as stated by Debbie McKay. Saying that she was concerned about the salmon stream adjacent the proposed building site. I know of humans losing their life because they could not pump water out of a stream to fight a fire, come on people!

Family thankful for the troops
It’s Christmas time again. This year our family along with many others will have an empty seat at the table for Christmas dinner. For the first time in 19 years we will celebrate without our “baby”  our son who is serving in the Army in South Korea. We miss him daily, but with the holidays here the void seems even bigger.

Different opinions doesn’t mean different beliefs
In reply to Carol L. Keller’s impassioned letter of Nov. 18, I thank you and your family for their sacrifices to our great country. Ours is a country born from the desire for and pursuit of freedom, an ideal certainly worth defending. That your family has, and is continuing to serve in defense of our freedom is commendable.

Wal-Mart offers more good than bad
First of all, Wal-Mart will not drive most local merchants out of business any more than Kmart did. Secondly, when Kmart went out of business, not one local merchant stepped up to the plate and opened a clothing store, toy store, shoe store, small appliance store or any other store to benefit us. We did, however, note a lot more tourist shops.

Presentation will shed more light on prescription drug plan
Medicare Part D affects not just seniors, but all Medicare recipients regardless of their age. Auto enrollment affects those who receive Medicare and Medicaid benefits, Medicare and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits or if the state is paying a recipient’s monthly premium for Medicare benefits.

Safety event motors on with help from volunteers, sponsors
On Nov. 19, Safe Kids Kenai Peninsula and sponsors hosted the seventh annual Children’s Snowmobile Safety Awareness event at Soldotna Middle School. One hundred and four children ages 6 to 14 attended to learn safety tips for snowmobiling and purchase a full-faced, properly fitted snowmobile helmet.

Nikiski scouts gifts to soldiers earn military salute
I am writing to thank the leaders, scouts and parents of Troop 659 and Pack 654 from Nikiski for the care packages they sent to us in Kuwait. I am one of many who are deployed from Elmendorf Air Force Base outside Anchorage. We received a box full of separate packages today that included Christmas cards written by the scouts and all kinds of candies, snacks and even socks.

HEA starts Healy plan
An engineering consulting firm hired by Homer Electric Association has begun assessing what it would take to fire up the mothballed Healy coal plant, a technologically modern facility that could add as much as 50 megawatts of energy to Alaska’s Railbelt power grid.

Photo feature: Worth a thousand words
Randy Harvey photographs the setting sun from the boardwalk on Bridge Access Road on Tuesday afternoon. “I like the transition time,” he said of the fading light.

House fire could be arson
A fire that destroyed a Kasilof house Tuesday burned just one-tenth of a mile from a shed that caught fire less than two weeks ago and is being investigated for possible arson.

Mixing it up, trail system tops committee agenda
The Kenai-Soldotna Fish and Game Advisory Committee will hammer out its response to proposed mixing-zone provision amendments and attempt to come to a consensus on a proposed Hut-to-Hut trail system on the peninsula.

New student orientations scheduled for January
If someone has never been to college, navigating through the system can be daunting. This is why the Kenai River Campus holds an orientation session for new students prior to each semester.

Valuable resources
Most of the student’s in Dave Michael’s fourth-grade class at Tustumena Elementary School have handled a salmon for one reason or another.

Sports Briefs
The Kenai Peninsula Hockey Association’s PeeWee B squad took a loss, then played to a draw in two games against the Anchorage Junior Aces last weekend in Anchorage.